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Ethnic Conflicts in North Caucasus

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Ethnic Conflicts in North Caucasus ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЕ ЗАМЕТКИ DOI: 10.24411/2221-3279-2020-10044 ETHNIC CONFLICTS IN NORTH CAUCASUS Monalisha Acharjee Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India Article history: Abstract: Ethnic confl icts are a challenge to the state as it impacts the foreign policy as well as the domestic politics Received: of a nation. The region of North Caucasus has been the most 03.11.2018 unstable region among the Republics of the Russian Federation. The present article will analyse the causes of the rising tensions Accepted:: among the ethnic groups and the role of Russia in solving the 03.07.2019 problems in the region. It will further explain the drawbacks of the Russian authorities and will recommend policies which About the authors: could bring a positive change in the confl ict. The use of force PhD Research Scholar, Center for Russian and Central would not be able to bring any change in the region rather it Asian Studies, School of International Studies, would be more fruitful if efforts are made to address the causes Jawaharlal Nehru University for the ethnic violence. e-mail: [email protected] Key words: North Caucasus; ethnicity; Russia; security; Islam; Chechnya; confl ict The end of cold war and the disintegration has a vast density of languages anywhere on of the Soviet Union have resulted in an increase earth.2 The geostrategic location of the North in the number of ethnic confl icts in the region. Caucasus has played an important role in North Caucasus has been one such region in the the multi diversity of the ethnic group in the Russian Federation where till date there has been region. It was invaded by the Persian, Ottoman, continuous confl icts and instability challenging Byzantine and Tsarist empires. North Caucasus the security of the entire Russian territory. has been inhabited by a large number of ethnic `The region of Caucasus in the Eurasian groups and thus it has been referred to as the continent has been described as an element of “Mountain of Tongues”.3 Alexander Rondeli ‘the new world disorder’.1 The reason behind has argued that the geopolitical location has this defi nition was the ethno-political confl icts led to loss for the Caucasian people rather than and the warfare in the region. However out of any benefi t. Territories of the Caucasian people the total eight civil confl icts in the region of have been annexed; their population have been the former Soviet Union fi ve have occurred in deported and suppressed violently. Caucasus the Caucasus region. For example the confl icts has been an important communication route in the Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, between Europe and Asia and is an important Abkhazia, the Prigorodniy Rayon of North site for production and export of oil and gas Ossetia and Chechnya. These confl icts together resources from the Caspian Sea.4 have resulted into death of thousands of people and large number of refugees and internally displaced persons. 2 Wall, Thomas D. The Caucasus: An Introduction, The region of North Caucasus has been Oxford University Press, 2010. defi ned by Thomas Wall as a region which 3 Catford, J.C, Mountain of Tongues: The 1 Cornell, Svante. Small Nations and Great Languages of the Caucasus // Annual Review Of Powers: A Study of Ethno political Confl ict in the Anthropology, 1997, Vol. 6, PP. 283-314. Caucasus. Taylor and Francis Group, London and 4 Rondeli, Alexander. The North Caucasus: A View New York, 2000. from Tbilisi, Turkish Political Quarterly, 2011. 174 СРАВНИТЕЛЬНАЯ ПОЛИТИКА . 2020 Т.11 № 3 ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЕ ЗАМЕТКИ Concept of ethnicity fought between the nations.7 The shift from the generic war to the ethnic war was evident An ethnic group can be defi ned as a set of especially since the collapse of the multi ethnic people who share common language, religion, Soviet Union and the homogenous Yugoslavia culture, race, territory or economic system. during the 1990s. In both the cases the ethnic The concept of ethnicity is defi ned by various confl icts resulted into violence and civil war.8 scholars. There is no one defi nition of ethnicity. For some “ethnicity” is understood in terms of ancestry for others it means physical attributes. Different theories of ethnicity Norman Yetman argues that ethnicity is matter Primordialist school. In this school of identity or a sense of belonging to a particular ethnicity is understood as an ascribed identity or group.5 Ethnicity is subjective in the sense as it is assigned status. It is something that is inherited a product of human mind and human sentiments. from one’s ancestors. For example if your On the other hand it is defi ned as objective in ancestors are Japanese then you are also Japanese the sense that it has objective characteristics as because you inherit certain features from your well as it is constructed by power relations and forefathers. Thus, the proponents of this school social forces. There are some who also argue argue that ethnicity is very deeply rooted, it is that ethnicity is a combination of subjective a primal bond to one’s ancestral bloodline. The perceptions based on some objective physical primordialists argue that ethnicity relies on the attributes such as culture, ancestry or national concept of kinship between members of the origin. ethnic group. Horowitz further supports this All over the world the importance or the argument and state that the kinship is the factor identity based on ethnicity has been rising. that enables the ethnic groups to think in terms Some of the evidences are the war in Yugoslavia of family resemblances. The second argument has led to fragmentation of its territory, ethnic of this school is that there is a demarcation confl ict in Northern Ireland, Quebec and other between who is a member of ethnic group European countries despite several peace- and who is not a member. Therefore, ethnicity making efforts in the Israeli Palestinian confl ict is static, fi xed and cannot be altered. Thus, if the clash between the two groups remains you are born a Japanese you will be forever a continued. In India the ethnic collisions between Japanese – the membership of an ethnic group Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and other communities cannot be changed. is a concerning issue. In Sri Lanka the confl ict The third argument is that ethnicity between the minority Tamils and the majority is determined by common ancestry. Thus, Sinhalese has resulted in death of thousands of members of an ethnic group share similar people and many as refugees. In Rwanda ethnic biological and cultural origins. This school is clashes remain evident in 1994 between the called “primordialist” because it emphasises majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi tribe. on the primordial factors such as lineage and Ethnic confl ict is a world view phenomenon. cultural ties in determining ethnicity.9 It persists in every part of the world and has been Constructivist school. The origin of the a central feature of places where heterogeneous Constructivist school could be determined population live.6 At the beginning of the twenty since 1970s. The proponents of this school fi rst century the term ethnicity has replaced the argue that ethnicity is socially constructed terms “races” or “nations” which were used in identity. In other words, ethnicity is created it the nineteenth century. The rise of multi-ethnic is contrast to the argument by the primordialist societies has brought the concept of ethnic that ethnicity is inherited. The next assumption confl ict as separate from the generic “war” of this philosophy is that ethnic boundaries 5 Yetman, Norman R., ed. Majority and Minority: 7 Center for Systemic Peace, 30 October 2006. The Dynamics of Racial and Ethnic Relations. 8 Smith, A. Nationalism: Theory, Ideology, History. 5th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1991. Cambridge: Polity, 2011. PP. 54-55. 6 Horowitz, D. Ethnic Groups in Confl ict. Berkeley, 9 Berghe, Pierre L. van Berghe. The Ethnic CA: University of California Press, 1985. P. 57. Phenomenon,Greenhood Press: London, 1981. COMPARATIVE POLITICS RUSSIA . 2020 Vol.11 No. 3 175 ИССЛЕДОВАТЕЛЬСКИЕ ЗАМЕТКИ are fl exible and changeable. Lastly ethnicity defi nes ethnic groups as “human groups that is a dynamic entity which is determined and entertain a subjective belief in their common constructed by the society. Any change in the descent because of similarities of physical type social environment of the society has an impact or of customs or both because of memories of on the ethnic communities existing in the colonization or migration ‒ in such a way that society. William Yancey explained ethnicity in this belief is important for the continuation of terms of an “emergent phenomenon” which is the non-kinship communal relationships”.13 In created by the structural conditions. He further some countries people are given the freedom argues that industrialization process in the to choose their ethnicity whereas in certain society has an impact on the development of countries they are not. People are considered to ethnic identity of the communities.10 be born into the ethic group according to the Instrumentalist school. The scholars in rules set by the society. this school view ethnicity as an instrument or strategic tool for gaining resources. Anthony Causes of ethnic confl ict in North Caucasus Smith in his work traces the origin of the instrumentalist view. According to him, this Ethnic confl icts are based on three school evolved during the 1960s and 1970s in factors such as religion and language, ethnic United States in the debate about (white) ethnic discrimination like political, social and persistence in what was supposed to have an economic and the third factor is the conscience effective “melting pot”.11 people who write or speak their views on According to this theoretical framework ethnicity through books newspapers and or people are affi liated to their ethnic groups till any other form of social media.
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